Chasing Sirens
by hts911
Summary: Things change fast. One moment you're solving for f of -x or even and odd functions and the next thing you know, your neighbor is dead. You'll never see her again. Because dead people…they don't come back to life.
1. Prologue

**AN: I actually had plans to be working on a story that I nearly abandoned last year, but I had plans to write this since this summer, I have it all plotted out for the most part, and it has a theme song, so I thought 'what the hell, I've got free time; might as well write a fanfic for a show I don't even watch anymore'. So, I apologize for any errors in grammar, spelling, and characterization (well, I don't apologize for characterization in this chapter) ahead of time. Hopefully, though, this will be read and enjoyed almost as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

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**Prologue**

The distant wailing of sirens traveled to her ears, sending chills down her spine. Close, _so close_, but most definitely _not_ on patrol for someone like her. Barefoot, cold, and alone, she knew that nobody had even come to look for her. Though, she supposed, that was exactly what she had expected. She had only just recently started the process of turning a new leaf and all of her new connections were still in the process of being built, void of any emotional ties. And the old ones, well, they had yet to lose all traces of resentment.

Cars drove past her, headlights flashing one by one, nearly blinding her with their suddenness. Lights on. She was there. Lights off. She was invisible. Lights on. Lights off. Light on. Lights off. All lights off. All lights off for the girl walking along the side of the road where anyone could snatch her up in a fit of ill will. All lights off for the girl who'd like nothing more than to be hidden in the darkness. And keep it she would.

Goal in mind, her feet took her off the side of the road and into the swarm off trees that happily coexisted beside it. Without a trace, without a whimper, without a sound she wandered into the forest with one thought in mind: Glory. For once she had that one thing, she could finally end him.

That one thought flooded her mind, overtaking her senses, blocking out all thoughts of reason. _Important._ It was the only thing that truly mattered, the only thing that could truly make everything right again.

The brush from the random plants dug into her feet, small rocks attempting to embed themselves into her skin. Stray branches clawed at her face, tearing away at everything it could, leaving microscopic cuts in their wake. She didn't feel the pain. She didn't feel the nicks or the scratches, only identifying with the overwhelming sense of euphoria that filled her when she realized just how close she truly was to her destination. She could smell it. She was so close she could smell it. Everything that had led up to this….everything she'd sacrificed…it would all be worth it.

Determination filled her veins, adrenaline pumping through her system as she took off into a run. Glory. Glory. _Glory._ She had to obtain Glory. She was so close.

The trees thinned out into a clearing where the grass grew wild and tall, the flowers with promise, everything melding together with the calm that the location held. She was there. She was finally there.

Relief washed over her body, bringing the weight that once lay on her shoulders down with it and into the ground where she belonged. Light once more, she dropped to her knees, grin stretching over her face as she looked to the star filled sky. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears, pulsing as she gazed at the luminescent full moon.

"I made it." The words were lost in the night's cool breeze. "I made it. I made it. I made it. I _made _it."

She sighed in content, the laughter coming up soon after. It bubbled from within, bursting forth from her lips with the power of a thousand angry bulls. It filled the space around her, tickling the aged wood of the trees that lined the clearing, before dying away with one final guffaw. It ended before it really even had time to begin. "I made-"

Her words were cut off as what was left of the crimson bun she had messily put her hair into earlier was ripped back, pulling her head back with enough speed to cause whip-lash. A cold blade pressed up against the skin of her neck, just gently enough to grace the skin. Just gently enough to let her know just how close she was to death.

"Hello, Karin."

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It's strange how fast things can change. In most cases that would be a reference to someone's youth, the words falling out of a proud parent's mouth the moment you do something that proves that you really are finding a place in the world, accompanied by the watery eyes that come just before they tell you that you're growing up so fast. It had always been so easy for me to just tune out all the occurrences in the world, turn them into background noise and focus on the here and nows, the more simple parts of my life. It had always been so _easy _to forget-to forget the one thing that actually does make a difference: life is never simple.

One moment, you're solving for _f_ of (_–x)_ or even and odd functions, and then, the next thing you know, your neighbor's screaming bloody murder like the world's about to implode. It was really such an important moment, so significant, and I knew that. I could _feel_ that. Racking through my bones and pounding in my heart, I _knew_ it, even as I rolled my eyes and complained to my mother about how the neighbors were always _so_ overdramatic and that this was the sign of what I always knew-their drama was finally causing them physical pain.

But then came the ambulance. Then came the cops. Then came the body, zipped up nice and safe from prying eyes as it was wheeled on the gurney with a one stop ticket to the morgue. Multi colored lights flashed, my neighbors flooded the lawn, and the middle aged woman who seemed to be lost in the center of it all as she clawed at the police with the desperate, wailing plea for them to just bring back her _**baby**_.

That night, my neighbor, Karin, died. She overdosed on drugs and a friend of hers brought her home where she died on her basement couch. 6 hours later, her mother found her pulseless, lifeless, and pale.

Things change fast. One moment you're solving for _f _of _(-x)_ or even and odd functions and the next thing you know, your neighbor is dead. You'll never see her again. Because dead people…they don't come back to life.

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**AN: I wish you could give out awards to music artists who make writing easier. If I could, I'd give a thousand of them to Electric Guest.**


	2. Chapter 1

**AN: Well, this was particularly hard to write and finalize (and actually post-it spent about 3 days lost on my desktop before I realized I'd renamed the file), yet it still turned out kind of crappy and confusing. For that, I apologize (along with the time it took to come out), but hey, things have to get worse before they get better right? Yeah…**

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"_State your name."_

"_H-Hinata H-hyuga."_

"_Did you know Karin Craft?"_

"_Y-yes."_

"_Was she a friend of yours?"_

"_No. Karin didn't really have friends here."_

"_And why is that?"_

"_I-I…w-well…s-she…"_

"_Take a deep breath…there you go…now, just take your time."_

"_Karin was-"_

"_What's that sound?"_

"_I-I-"_

"_**This interview is over."**_

**Chapter One**

It all started with the whispers in the kitchen, the kind parents have when they're in the middle of a "private" conversation that they chose to hold in the most public place they could find. The second my bare feet hit the cold, tiled kitchen floors, the voices came to a stop.

"Sakura!" Mom's voice came out shrill, the common tell of a lie between the two of us. When things go south, pitch goes up. "I made you breakfast sweetie!"

I could smell it before I was even close enough to see it. Eggs, sausage, _and_ bacon. Something was definitely up. No one ever made breakfast on school day that didn't come from cereal box or the freezer section of the grocery store and that last one only happened on a day that someone was feeling generous. _Was it my birthday?_ No. I never forgot a birthday, especially my own.

I walked further into the kitchen, a plate heaping full of food shoved into my hands before I could even make it to the counter. A nervous grin on Mom's part nearly compensates from the rough hand shoving me the nearest seat at the table. 2 pairs of wavering eyes on me, smiling encouragingly, waiting for something I wasn't informed enough to offer.

"Um…thanks?" was all I could really manage. "You guys didn't have to do this," I tried. "What's the occasion?" From across the room Mom's smile quivered slightly, eyes growing slightly watery before she rushed out of the room. "Mom? Mom!"

"Stay Sakura," Dad let out lightly, before I even had the opportunity to go after her and apologize for whatever I said that set her off. "She's just…a little shaken up right now. She just needs a bit of time."

_'Time? Time to do what?' _I wondered, but from the expression on Dad's face when he sat down across from me, I knew that time was just an understatement. He looked tired and ragged, face holding that 6 o'clock shadow that normally would have been shaved off by now, eyes red and puffy from a long night.

"She's just a little scared after what happened last night," he said, fingers reaching across the table to push a stray strand of hair out of my face, before pausing halfway as if shocked. His hand fell back onto the table with a dull thud.

"What happened?" I asked, even as the small voice in the back of my head cued me in to the fact that I didn't really want to know the full of it. I'd seen the police. I'd seen the ambulance, the flashing lights, the neighbor's on the street, all trying to get their own slice of tragedy. "Did it have anything to do with all the cops and the ambulance at the neighbor's yesterday? Are they alright?"

It was a stupid question. I realized that before it'd come out of my mouth. I didn't have to be a professional to know that nothing good can ever come out a visit from the cops that results in someone being wheeled out in a body bag.

Dad was silent for a moment, looking down ruefully at his syrup drenched pancakes as if they were the root of all evil and the sole reason why he had to have this conversation with me, before clearing his throat. "No. They're not okay. Last night…Mrs. Craft found Karin…she, well you know what drugs can do to a person who abuses them and takes them for all the wrong reasons and-"

"Karin overdosed and her mom found her after-" I cut myself off, pausing in search of the right words. No. There were no "right" words. Only better ones. "…too late."

The words hurt coming out of my mouth, tainted with bitter acetone. Karin and I weren't close or anything. In fact, the closest we could ever get to each other was a mutual sense of dislike that eventually turned into pretty much forgetting each other's presence. She was always just too…_much_ for my taste so it wasn't a surprise that she went out the way she did. Though, it was probably a surprise to Mrs. Craft who had always been under the impression that Karin was only pretending to be the stereotypical "trouble child" who snuck out at night to do secret community service projects rather than to go to parties. She was always asking me about her daughter, as if she thought we were friends or something….

I saw where my mother's thoughts must have been going, what must have set her so on edge. "You guys know you don't have to worry about…you know_, that_, with me. I don't-I don't-"

"Oh-oh, yeah, yeah," Dad cut me off nervously. "Just-When you're a parent and it seems like you can never keep up with the kids these days and…"

"And you have nothing to worry about with me," I interjected. "I'm just here for the education. You guys pay for it and I make sure none of the money goes to waste. I don't-I'm not like her. I _promise_."

From there the conversation fizzled, the emotional moment turned awkward after reassuring my dad that I wasn't going to poison my body until I was 6 feet under, which, admittedly, feels a bit insensitive. Like I said, Karin and I weren't close in the slightest, but I never hated her, and even if I had, I wouldn't have wished death upon her. Yeah, maybe I had the occasional wish to punch her face in, but no one deserves to die so young.

I wolfed down my breakfast after that, despite how the heaviness that had already settled in my stomach, eager to get out of the tense air of the house. I walked to school alone, frigid autumn air biting at the exposed skin of my cheeks, meeting up with my friend, Hinata, at the gates. "Did you hear about what happened?" I asked her, as we walked inside, stopping at my locker to pick up some textbooks. She was safe to ask. I knew she wouldn't ask about what I had seen. Wouldn't push for questions like the other kids would if they knew.

"Y-yes. Neji told me," she said in her normal soft tone, looking down at her finely polished shoes. "They're holding an assembly before classes. The police are there q-questioning students now."

'Questioning students?'

"My dad told me this morning that overdosed. The police probably just want to find out who she got the drugs from so there won't be any more accidents…Nothing for us to worry about, right?"

Hinata's answer was lost in the chatter from the sea of students directing us to the auditorium. We took our seats in the back, waiting silently until Principal Tsunade took the stand, going on about last night's tragedy, sugarcoating it and turning the incident into more of a speech on how no one should feel the need to turn to drugs. There was talk about grief counselors, depression, and finally on how we shouldn't let what happened disrupt out education. Nothing about the cops, nothing about the questions, and, despite the fact that she'd been the sole cause of the assembly, nothing about Karin that wasn't general facts we all weren't already aware of.

Karin's death was all the school could seem to talk about, though, after an hour of the subject being talked around in circles. There was no actual interest in how horrible it was that she was gone. No, 'poor Karin, she didn't deserve it' or even a phony 'she was a good friend and I'll miss her.' The truth was that no one really knew enough about her to even grant her those sentiments. She wasn't close to anyone at school and the only people I'd ever seen her hanging around were random screw-ups who'd been expelled or kids from the streets. There had always been a mutual disinterest between her and the rest of the student body. Or, at least, there had been one up until she'd died.

"Well, apparently Karin was a drug dealer to the mafia and was killed off for asking them to up her pay," I announced to Hinata bitterly as I sat down at our little nook off in the corner of the cafeteria. The theories conspiracy theories were the new "obsession". They were all harsh, crude, outlandish, and insensitive. Yet, at the same time, it made sense because for all I knew about her, Karin could have been part of a mafia. Probably not a big time gang or a hardcore drug dealer, but most of her life _was_ on the down low.

"Kids are cruel," whispered Hinata, glancing over to the laughing bunch nearby. I followed the main focus of her gaze, eyes landing on a laughing Ino Yamanaka in the center of it all, catching the end of their conversation on who was going to try to get into the viewing of the body.

"Yeah. Kids are_ really_ cruel."

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I came home to a black dress on my bed and a mother still too scared to talk to me. It was too early for the Crafts to have their funeral arrangements already planned out, but it would make sense that we'd already have the invite. Even then, I didn't particularly want to go. It would be like trespassing, like going to the funeral of the girl at the local convenient store who rang up your purchases a couple of times. And after hearing what I heard today…well, just the thought of the funeral made me sick.

I folded the dress up and shoved it into an empty shoebox under my bed, filling the newly cleared space with my textbooks. One hand flipped open to the chapter we'd studied earlier that day as the other sent a text to Hinata of the work she'd missed in her absence a couple of days ago. Peace, war, and innovations filled my mind as I delved into the book. I purposely left no room in my mind for guilt.

The rest of the week passed by without incident, ending that Saturday with the funeral service. It started with the viewing of the wake; Mrs. Craft wiping her teary eyes as she peered into the casket, before looking away as if burned. I didn't want to watch. I didn't want to look. But the line moved forward, my body locked into its path, resisting my will to just walk away until it was finally my turn to see.

Her hair was curled, framing the slightly waxy pale skin. Lips painted a china red, cheeks carrying a rosy flush, she almost looked normal. Not normal in the sense of being alive, of being herself, but more in the sense of being a normal person. She could definitely pass for an average teen, could just get up right now, step out the casket and walk away without anyone batting an eyelash. The one thing she couldn't pass for, though, was herself.

The line was ushered forward, my few moments of viewing spent. I had no desire to get those moments back. One final glance down at the casket and I saw it. The mark standing out against the pale white.

Its image was burned into my mind throughout the whole service, charred as deeply into my brain as it had been into the surface of her skin. It was obvious that they'd tried to cover it up, but no amount of makeup could erase that pink tint or the slight raise in skin. A smooth circle on the back of her hand held 3 tear shaped drops, one filled in a dusty charcoal, cradling an inky black dot in the center. Mind. Body. Soul. It was familiar, the image registering as something I'd seen before, but my body couldn't connect with where I'd seen it.

The funeral service melded into the burial, a sea of black cloaked figures surrounding Karin's earthbound casket. That should have been it. It should have been over when the dirt was packed onto her body, closing her out from the outside world, from the rest of humanity. It should have been-

An icy chill racked up my spine, creeping into my bones, hammered at my skin, and numbed my skin. As if summoned, I turned to look behind me, body moving of its own desire, breath catching in my throat at the sight that greeted me.

Tangled red hair, mussed with sticks and leaves, framed a ghostly pale face. Luminescent skin covered in scratched and bruises, clothes torn, the mark on her hand glowing a faint blue. This girl looked nothing like the girl in the casket. This girl had obviously been through hell and back.

Crimson eyes bored into my own, burning red hot with anger. They pierced my soul, shattering everything that I could have possibly believed about what had happened to the girl before me. This was no accident. Karin was murdered. She'd been through hell and back and was seeking retribution. Her eyes slid from me, to the Earth where her body now lay buried six feet underground, roaming through the sea of black until it locked onto its target: a lone Uchiha.

_Struggling. A knife held tight to her neck as she weakly attempted to fight off her attacker. The blood pounded in her ears, heart racing in her chest. "No! No!" But all her screams were lost in the lifeless expanse of the forest. No one heard her pleas for help. No one would hear her go out. She couldn't let that happen. She couldn't._

_The ground trembled lightly beneath their feet, small rocks and dirt rolling beneath them. There was a slight grating, than a sharp rip as a fist sized chunk of earth thrust free from the ground, rising to the area just behind her attackers head, suspended in the air. Face ragged, jaw tense, and body worn from the effort, she was running on adrenaline._

"_Try," she let out, voice strained. "Try and kill me, but so _help me,_ you _will_ die with me."_

_The blade moved in one her neck. The rock surged forward. And Sakura woke up._

The next morning was rough on my tired body, worn through with exhaustion from the previous night's dream. I grumbled, opening my locker to get my calculus book, stopping at the sight of the pale blue paper attached to it.

**Your friend didn't die in an accident; the real cause of death walks among you.**

Bold, perfectly formed letters all followed by that sign. Mind. Body. And soul.

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**AN: I forgot to put this in the beginning, but I think it should be known that I haven't seriously watched Naruto in a while. I saw about the 1****st**** 30 or 40 episodes of Shippuden before taking a break that resulted in me only seeing the occasional episode online. So, most of the characters used won't be any of the recent ones and a lot of my Naruto related knowledge is kind of "old school". Anyways, sorry for the crappy chapter and I hope to get the next and, hopefully, better written chapter out soon.**


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